Family Violence – Preliminary Assessment tool

Abstract

The Family Violence – Preliminary Assessment tool is a crucial component of the Comprehensive Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) developed by the Victorian Government in Australia. This tool functions as a rapid, structured professional judgment guide designed to identify immediate and high-risk factors for family violence, with a particular focus on factors associated with potential serious harm or lethality. It organizes risk factors into three domains—Victim Vulnerability, Perpetrator Risk, and Relationship Dynamics—allowing practitioners in health, social services, and law enforcement to quickly screen for danger and initiate appropriate safety and risk management responses. This preliminary screening is foundational to the comprehensive risk assessment process.

Keywords

Family Violence, Domestic Violence, Lethality Assessment, Risk Assessment, CRAF, Victim Vulnerability, Perpetrator Risk, Structured Professional Judgment, Safety Planning, Victorian Government

Authors

Victorian Government, Department of Victorian Communities (Australia)

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Family Violence – Preliminary Assessment tool is to facilitate the immediate identification of critical risk indicators associated with family violence. It serves as an initial screening instrument used by frontline professionals to determine if a person is at immediate or elevated risk of harm, injury, or death. The prompt identification of these factors is essential for triggering urgent safety interventions and commencing comprehensive risk management protocols.

The tool is designed to be highly practical, providing a concise checklist of established risk and vulnerability markers. By systematically assessing factors related to the victim, the perpetrator, and the relationship context, practitioners can make informed, rapid decisions regarding immediate safety planning and mandatory reporting requirements, thereby protecting victims and their children from ongoing abuse.

Construct

The scale measures the psychological and situational construct of imminent danger and ongoing risk within the context of family violence. This construct is operationalized through the assessment of static and dynamic risk factors derived from extensive research into domestic violence homicide and near-homicide incidents. The tool specifically focuses on factors empirically linked to escalation and severity of violence.

Key sub-constructs measured include the Perpetrator’s Capacity for Extreme Violence (e.g., access to weapons, threats to kill, history of strangulation); Victim Vulnerability (e.g., isolation, mental health issues, pregnancy); and Contextual Escalation (e.g., recent separation, increasing frequency/severity of abuse). The presence of specific factors marked with an asterisk (*) indicates an increased risk of the victim being killed or almost killed, highlighting the tool’s focus on lethality assessment.

Validity

While the Preliminary Assessment tool itself is a checklist derived from the broader CRAF framework rather than a standalone psychometric instrument, its validity is rooted in the empirical evidence base supporting the CRAF. The risk factors included are consistent with findings from international research on domestic violence homicide markers, demonstrating strong content validity.

The framework has demonstrated ecological validity, as it is designed for use in real-world, high-stakes clinical and legal settings where accurate risk categorization is critical for resource allocation and intervention success. Factors such as choking, access to weapons, and threats to kill are universally recognized high-risk indicators, providing strong face validity for the instrument’s intended purpose of detecting lethal threats.

Reliability

Formal psychometric reliability data (such as inter-rater reliability coefficients specific to this preliminary checklist) are typically embedded within the extensive training and auditing protocols of the CRAF, rather than published as standalone scale statistics. The structured, ‘Yes/No’ format of the checklist items is intended to maximize inter-rater reliability among trained professionals by minimizing subjective interpretation.

The reliability of the assessment relies heavily on the consistent application of the framework’s practice guides, ensuring that professionals systematically gather and interpret evidence for each listed risk factor. The framework emphasizes training to standardize the interpretation of vague factors (e.g., “controlling behaviour”) to maintain reliable assessment across different service providers.

Factor Analysis

Since the Preliminary Assessment tool is a short, criterion-referenced checklist designed to capture known high-risk indicators rather than a continuous variable scale, formal factor analysis is generally not applied to the preliminary tool itself. Instead, the factors are grouped based on clinical and research consensus regarding the source of risk:

• Victim Factors: Focus on vulnerability and barriers to safety.
• Perpetrator Factors: Focus on violence history, control, and capacity for extreme harm.
• Relationship Factors: Focus on contextual dynamics and escalation.

This structure reflects established theoretical models of domestic violence risk assessment, ensuring comprehensive coverage of the three main domains contributing to the overall danger level.

Instrument

Test Type: Structured Professional Judgment Checklist / Clinical Screening Tool

Format: Yes/No checklist based on reported incidents and observations.

Language Available: Primarily English (designed for use within the Victorian context, but applicable internationally).

Population Group: Victims and Perpetrators involved in incidents of family violence.

Age Group: Adults (primary focus), though factors related to children’s safety are included.

Population Details: Utilized by professionals across various sectors (police, health, community services, legal) when responding to or assessing clients experiencing family violence.

Test Methodology: Information is gathered via direct interview with the victim, review of case history, and collateral information. The assessor marks the presence (Yes) or absence (No) of each specific risk and vulnerability factor to determine the overall level of danger and required response.

Keywords

CRAF Framework, Lethality Indicators, Drug Misuse, Mental Health Issues, Stalking, Controlling Behavior, Intervention Order, Family Violence Homicide

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not applicable (Government publication)

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact information for the relevant government department in Victoria, Australia (e.g., Department of Families, Fairness and Housing).

Correspondence Address: Victorian Government, Melbourne, Australia

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (CRAF) and its components, including this preliminary tool, are publicly available resources developed and maintained by the Victorian Government. There is typically no fee for the use of the framework itself by authorized professionals within relevant jurisdictions, but use requires adherence to practice guidelines and mandatory training.

Test Year: The core framework from which this tool is derived was formally introduced and published by the Victorian Government in 2007, with subsequent reviews and updates (e.g., 2012 practice guides).

Reference’s

• Victorian Government, (2007), Family Violence: Risk Assessment and Risk Management, Melbourne: Department of Victorian Communities. The framework documentation is available online: http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/home
• The original PDF documentation for the 2007 framework can be downloaded here: Family violence- Risk assessment and risk management (2007 PDF)
• Framework and Practice Guides 1-3: Family Violence- Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Framework and Practice Guides 1-3 (2012 PDF)
• Participant Handbook Practice Guide 2: Family Violence- Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Participant Handbook Practice Guide 2 (PDF)
• Risk Assessment for Specialist Family Violence Workers: Participant Handbook Practice Guide 3: Family Violence- Risk Assessment for Specialist Family Violence Workers: Participant Handbook Practice Guide 3 (PDF)
• Review of the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (CRAF) Final Report (Accessible Version): Review of the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework (CRAF)

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Items of the Family Violence – Preliminary Assessment tool

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Risk or vulnerability factor

Victim

• Pregnancy/new birth*
• Depression/ mental health issue
• Drug and/or alcohol misuse/abuse
• Has ever verbalised or had suicidal ideas or tried to commit suicide
• Isolation

Perpetrator

• Use of weapon in most recent event*
• Access to weapons*
• Has ever harmed or threatened to harm victim
• Has ever tried to choke the victim*
• Has ever threatened to kill victim*
• Has ever harmed or threatened to harm or kill children*
• Has ever harmed or threatened to harm or kill other family members
• Has ever harmed or threatened to harm or kill pets or other animals*
• Has ever threatened or tried to commit suicide*
• Stalking of victim*
• Sexual assault of victim*
• Previous or current breach of intervention order
• Drug and/or alcohol misuse/abuse*
• Obsession/jealous behaviour toward victim*
• Controlling behaviour*
• Unemployed*
• Depression/mental health issue#
• History of violent behaviour (not family violence)

Relationship

• Recent separation*
• Escalation – increase in severity and/or frequency of violence*
• Financial difficulties

* May indicate an increased risk of the victim being killed or almost killed.

# Mental health issues such as depression and paranoid psychosis, which focuses on the victim as hostile, are high risk factors when they are present in conjunction with other risk factors, particularly a previous history of violence.

Presence of factor: Yes, No